|
|
|
The
League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
4
|
|
 |
|
7 |
|
10
= Highest
Rating
|
|
|
Talk
about blowing it!
On
paper, at least, this movie had a lot going
for it: a cool premise (characters from 19th Century
literature band together to form a team of Victorian
superheroes), first-rate production design (Carol
Spier - Naked Lunch,
Mimic), a director
with a demonstrated talent for action (Stephen
Norrington, Blade), and
a cast headlined by one of the world's last genuine
movie stars (Sean Connery). But even with all
these positive elements, The
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen just
couldn't get its collective act together.
Based on the terrific graphic
novel by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, League
posits an alternate-reality Victorian Age on the
brink of world war in the year 1899. A masked
super-villain known as "The Fantom" has developed
an array of 'futuristic' weaponry —
tanks, body armor, automatic rifles —
with
which he plans to set nation against nation. With
his henchmen dressed as German soldiers the evil
genius uses a tank to smash his way into the Bank
of England and rob it. Soon afterwards (this time
disguised in British uniforms) the Fantom's gang
raids a zeppelin factory outside Berlin and destroys
it in spectacular fashion. Blaming each other
for the incidents, the British Empire and Imperial
Germany begin mobilizing for war.
In Africa, the legendary adventurer
of King Solomon's Mines fame,
Allan
Quatermain (Connery),
is approached by one of Her Majesty's civil servants.
Will he come out of retirement to defend the Empire
in its hour of need? The decision is made for
him when Quatermain's club is attacked by the
Fantom's men and an old drinking buddy (the late
David Hemmings, in an all-too-fleeting cameo)
is shot dead. Traveling to London, Quatermain
is briefed by "M" (Richard Roxburgh) on the threat
the Fantom poses to global stability —
in the aftermath of the attacks on the Bank of
England and the zeppelin works, the world's major
powers have begun an arms race to develop advanced
weapons. A secret conference of heads-of-state
is scheduled to take place in Venice to discuss
and hopefully avert the looming crisis. Quatermain
has been recruited to lead a select, highly specialized
team of volunteers in a mission to protect the
conference and eliminate this 'Fantom' menace.
His league mates: Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah),
scientist/explorer a century ahead of his time
and commander of the fabled Nautilus submarine-boat;
Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), a cockney thief
who stole the invisibility formula from a certain
mad scientist and is now himself invisible; Dr.
Henry Jekyll (Jason Flemyng) and his chemically-induced
monster of an alter ego, Mr. Hyde; Dorian Grey
(Queen of The Damned's
Stuart Townsend), a foppish rake who is immortal
—
and indestructible —
as long as he never gazes upon a magical portrait
of himself; and Mina Harker (Peta Wilson of TV's
La Femme Nikita), a
vampire (through her past contact with Count Dracula)
who keeps her bloodlust in check in order to serve
Mankind. Later joining this eclectic group — for
no justifiable reason other than as a sop to American
audiences — is the grown-up Tom Sawyer (Shane
West), now a pistol-packin' agent of the U.S.
Secret Service.
The remainder of the adventure
is pure formula, with the requisite action sequence
every 15 minutes or so to keep things moving along.
Connery is just coasting here, playing Sean Connery
the Screen Persona, but when is that ever really
a bad thing? He's the only actor I know to remain
viable —
or rather, semi-believable — as
an action hero well into his 70s. (A decent rug
and good editing certainly help.) Some of the
other actors get to shine in his stead despite
the thin script. Curran gives the Invisible Man
routine a fresh spin; Townsend and Flemyng make
the most of their Dorian Grey and Dr. Jekyll roles.
Wilson is well-cast as the vampiric Mina, prim
yet steely when Mrs. Harker the chemist, feral
and sexy when it's time to bare her fangs. Captain
Nemo, as played by Shah and in accordance with
Jules Verne's novels, is a Sikh warrior-prince,
not a European; his Nautilus and land-traveling
roadster ("I call it an automobile")
are festooned with Eastern symbols and stylings.
(The interior of the Nautilus looks more
like a Raja's palace than a submarine.) In fact,
he's such a cool character in this film I think
I'd have enjoyed it a bit more had it been fashioned
as The Amazing Adventures Of Captain Nemo
instead!
Props, sets, and costumes are
all topnotch, giving the film a great "steampunk"
look. On the other hand, the abundant special
effects are a decidedly mixed bag. Splendid miniatures
are often incorporated with mediocre to poor CGI,
the kind that'd be acceptable for a small-screen
Xena episode perhaps but not a major motion
picture. I sense that, for many key shots, League's
computer animators fought a losing battle to meet
the release deadline. Corners were cut and it
shows. The rendering of Mr. Hyde —
in this film a Hulk-like brute of enormous size
and strength —
is not entirely successful. The gigantic set-piece
that makes up the middle part of the film, the
partial destruction of a city, is a bloated, loud,
confusing mess that substantially damages the
whole. Afterwards, when League
makes a valiant attempt to rally in the action-packed
climax, I was beyond caring. It is not, however,
the wildly uneven digital effects that deliver
the fatal wound. The film's cardinal sin is its
dumbing down of the subject matter. The makers
assume that the audience is pretty stupid... How
else to explain the scene in which the battleship-sized
Nautilus is shown sailing up the canals
of Venice (!!!)?
I was quite torn, actually,
about my final Movie Rating for this film. I positively
love the concept, and some of the set-pieces
are genuinely fun and exciting. But the CGI overkill,
weak script, and ludicrous gaffes
(Venice, anyone?) truly undercut the good
stuff. So I'm left with no alternative but to
award The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen 4 points (out of ten). Perhaps
if I were in a more generous mood I'd nudge it
upwards to a '5', but I'm not. That would just
be too much of a stretch.
|
|
|
Since
it played in theaters less than 6 months ago, the
Fox DVD naturally presents League
using state-of-the-art video and audio. The film
looks and sounds quite fantastic. The 5.1 Surround
audio track is of particularly note; it is exemplary,
and easily the technical highlight of the DVD.
Extras
are comparatively thin considering that League
was intended as a summer blockbuster — typically
such major studio offerings get the 2-disc treatment
nowadays. Perhaps the disappointing box-office returns
were a factor here... Two separate audio commentaries
are provided: the first with actors Curran, Flemyng
and West and producers Don Murphy and Trevor Albert;
the second with costume designer Jacqueline West,
make-up supervisor Steve Johnson and special effects
artists John E. Sullivan and Matthew Gratzner. Whether
these will interest you or not depends chiefly on
how much you like the film. There are also 12 deleted
scenes (some with unfinished digital effects) that
don't really add anything to the film and were no
real loss to the final cut. A featurette in six
parts, Assembling the League, gives an interesting
behind-the-scenes look at the production. (Running
almost an hour total, I see no real reason to have
split it into multiple segments. My favorite part
detailed the building of the "Nemomobile".)
In a brief interview clip, Connery reveals himself
to be something of a clueless fuddyduddy who has
made some terrible career choices of late; he turned
down roles in The Matrix
and Lord of the Rings
because he (quote) "didn't understand them."
Oddly, the film's trailer is not included on the
disc. Instead there's a "special message"
—
a video PSA warning of the dangers of smoking marijuana.
Thanks so much for reminding me, Fox.
12/20/03 |
•
Home
| Reviews | Top
•
|
